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//**Disclaimer: This is a paper that I wrote for a presentation that I had to give to a graduate class in 2007. The information and hyperlink may no longer be current.**//
=Tech Tools For Teachers: Web 2.0 In The Classroom=

**The Problem: Realizing the Promise of Web 2.0 in Schools**
by Brad Fuhrer

At the end of 2006, Time magazine’s Person of the Year was ‘You’ (Grossman, 2006). On the cover of the magazine, underneath the title of the award, was a picture of a computer with a mirror in place of the screen. This mirror not only reflected the face of the reader, but also reflected the general feeling that 2006 was also the year of the computer and a renaissance of the Internet (Anderson, 2007). At the center of this renaissance is a concept known as Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 represents a change in how the Internet is used. It is a shift from a World Wide Web that is “read only” to a Web that is being described as the “Read Write Web.” The early days of the Internet or Web 1.0 was similar to more mainstream types of media such as newspapers, radio, and television which were designed, distributed and consumed in a one way flow of information (Gillmore, 2004). Today’s Internet is no longer a one-way street. Web 2.0 has created a generation of users made up of both consumers and producers. It has transformed the Internet from geek to sleek. In the days of Web 1.0 a user needed to use FTP, html, and a number of tools to create and publish web content. Today, in less than ten minutes that same person can set up a blog using Web 2.0 tools. The term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty, a vice-president of O’Reilly Media Inc., who used it to describe "exciting new Internet applications and sites that were popping up with surprising regularity" (O’Reilly, 2005). These applications and sites all have the following in common: 1. They deliver applications and content entirely through a browser (Web as a platform). 2. They provide a rich, interactive, user-friendly interface. 3. They provide some social-networking aspects. 4. Users own the content they create and exercise control over it. 5. They encourage participation and democracy (O’Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 holds great potential for schools since these applications and sites are free or cheap, web-based, and usually hosted by someone else. Unfortunately, many schools have been slow to take advantage of this emerging technology.

The failure to adopt Web 2.0 has not been because of a lack of connection or access. Public schools have made steady progress in expanding access in classrooms. In 2005, 94 percent of classrooms had Internet access, compared with just three percent in 1994. Investment in hardware during this period has also been significant and as a result the student computer ratio at public schools has been lowered from 12:1 in 1998 to 4:1 in 2005 (Lewis, Wells 2006). Despite these accomplishments, many feel that our schools have not realized the full potential of Web 2.0. Providing hardware and access without adequate teacher training has meant that the promise of Web 2.0 has gone unrealized.

**Connection and Access In Public Schools**
//**source: U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics**//

Many students are far ahead of their teachers in using Web 2.0 and as a result, have mastered the Internet at home, not in school (Rathbun, West, 2003). These students prefer to access subject information online, where it is more abundant, more accessible and more up-to-date (Arafeh, Levin, 2002). One only has to listen to these students to realize that the promise of Web 2.0 and technology in general is going unfulfilled. In 2003, a national student survey was conducted to determine students’ perspectives for the development of the National Education Technology Plan. In 2004, a report on the survey issued by the U.S. Department of Education, entitled Voices and Views of Today’s Tech-Savvy Students, detailed several major themes that emerged from the survey: • Today’s students are very technology-savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives. • Students are not just using technology differently today but are approaching their lives and their daily activities differently because of the technology. • As students get older, their use of technology becomes more sophisticated, but, comparatively, the younger students are on a fast track to becoming greater technology users and advocates. • The access point for technology use, particularly for older students, is home-focused, not school-focused. • Today’s students are ultra-communicators. (Voices and Views of Today’s Tech-Savvy Students, 2003). At the Sun Worldwide Education and Research Conference in February 2007, a panel of education professionals held an hour-long Q&A session with college students. Three clear messages emerged from this session: 1. Students want free and open access to information. 2. Social networking hubs are here to stay. Students check such sites as MySpace and Facebook several times a day because they can accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently. For these students it is easier to go to a friends Facebook account than to dig up their e-mail through the university system. 3. The face of education and the idea of the "campus" are changing. Students today spend much of their time outside of the classroom learning via podcast lectures, Googling for research and discussion in social networking sites (McLester, 2007). It is clear that students want technology such as Web 2.0 to be a part of their education because they use it in their daily lives and realize how useful it can be. It is also clear that for teachers, one of the most serious obstacles to fully integrating Web 2.0 into the classroom is a lack of training and knowledge.

Traditional sit-and-get training sessions or one-time-only workshops have not been effective in making teachers comfortable with using technology (Rodriguez, 2000). Studies indicate that technology training is most effective when teachers work together with access to follow-up discussion (Brand, 1997). An effective presenter on Web 2.0 would model this emerging technology by using a variety of Web 2.0 tools in his or her presentation. They would also create an environment that fosters continued learning and discussion. Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, and wikis are well suited for this type of learning environment.

Diagram illustrating the implementation of the proposed professional development.
//**Created at www.gliffy.com**//

Any discussion of Web 2.0 must begin with an explanation of what these tools are and what they can do. An excellent starting point for this process would be an examination of the following: • Podcasting • Blogs • Wikis • RSS Feeds • Video Sharing • Social Networks • Social Tagging Although not inclusive, this list contains seven Web 2.0 tools that can have an impact on any classroom. The first part of an effective professional development would consist of an ‘explanation’ session in which the presenter would use a variety of Web 2.0 tools to describe those tools. What follows is a brief look at each of the tools.

Podcasts are recordings, usually in MP3 format, which can be played either on a desktop computer or on a wide range of handheld MP3 players. Originally called audio blogs, they have their roots in efforts to add audio streams to early blogs (Felix, Stolarz, 2006). The term podcasting dates back to 2004 and was first mentioned in an article by Ben Hammersley in the Guardian (Anderson, 2007). The original article can be found at http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1145689,00.html. Podcasts can be enhanced with images, video, as well as links to web site content. This Web 2.0 tool gives students and teachers a chance to broadcast to a worldwide audience.

The word blog is shortened from the word ‘weblog’ and was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 (Doctorow et al., 2002). Blogs are often incorrectly described as online diaries. A blog is actually similar to an empty book and it is how a person uses the book that turns it into something. This book can be anything a blogger wants it to be from a sketchbook, a diary, a news site, political commentary, or anything else. The large number of people engaged in blogging has given rise to the term blogosphere (Nardi et al., 2004). The word refers to the world of bloggers operating in their own environment. As technology has become more sophisticated and bandwidth increased, bloggers have begun to incorporate multimedia into their blogs. There are now photo-blogs, video blogs, audio blogs and bloggers can even upload material directly from their mobile phones (see www.twitter.com). There are five characteristics of blogs: 1. Blogs are easy to create and update. 2. Blogs offer the ability to archive content by date. 3. The commenting feature of blogs allow for immediate feedback on a posting. 4. A variety of content can be posted including text, images, files, audio and video. 5. Most blogs allow readers to subscribe through RSS feeds (D' Souza, 2007) These five characteristics make it very easy to blog. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 100,000 blogs are created each day (Sifry, 2006). Blogs enable anyone to gain a voice in the digital world. They have become a valuable tool for commentary, editorials, announcements, and more.

The word wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning quick. Ward Cunningham, a computer programmer, developed the first wiki in the mid-1990s (Terdiman, 2005). He wanted to create writing spaces that allow users to add, modify and update pages. In a wiki, if something is missing or incorrect, a member can edit the wiki by adding content or making changes. Wikis also allow multiple authors to contribute and edit a shared document (Lamb, 2004). Changes to the document are tracked, making it easy to revert to an earlier version of the same document. The most commonly known and widely used wiki is Wikipedia. There are some problems associated with the level of openness of Wikis. Wikipedia, for example has suffered from malicious and false editing. (Stvilia, et al., 2005). Others, however, argue that these acts of vandalism and mistakes are corrected quickly by self-moderating the site (Cych, 2006). If these are concerns, access can be restricted to registered users only.

Netscape first developed RSS, which most people agree stands for Really Simple Syndication, in the late 1990’s (RSS Advisory Board, 2007). Using Extensible Markup Language (XML), a content provider can create an RSS feed that supplies files, headlines, links, and article summaries for his or her site. The information contained in the RSS feed can be accessed by a piece of software called an aggregator. The aggregator holds a list of web sites and resources that offer RSS feeds. When opened, the aggregator retrieves the information from each RSS feed page listed. The aggregator may be a desktop application or it may be web based. A few applications such as Apple’s Safari browser already have aggregators built into them. Any content that is updated regularly can now have an RSS feed attached to it, so that users can easily receive notifications when there is new content to be consumed (D’ Souza, 2007). Another great feature of RSS is it removes much of the eye candy found in many web sites and strips it down to important text and media file links.

One of the biggest growth areas on the Internet has been among sites that facilitate the storage and sharing of video content. YouTube is the most popular video-sharing site. In June of 2006, 2.5 billion videos were watched on the site and more than 65,000 videos were uploaded daily (Reuters, 2007). There are a variety of different services that offer public and private sharing of video content, as well as the ability to edit videos online. Each video sharing service is different, but they all allow members to select and upload video clips that they would like to share. Each service offers different upload limits either in time or file size. Youtube, for example, has a limit of 10 minutes or 100 megabytes whichever comes first.

Social networks give users the ability to find and communicate with people and organizations of similar interests. The most popular social networking website currently is MySpace. This site was originally created to connect independent and amateur music groups with potential listeners, but has since expanded to be a more general social networking site (Kelsey, 2007). Social networking services, such as MySpace and Facebook have shown incredible popularity over the past few years (Alexa, 2007). Both sites give users their own personal space where they can create a profile and connect with all their friends. These sites are similar to blogs in that they make it easy to create content. They not only allow participants to blog, but they also allow them to share media such as photos, music and videos.

**How popular is MySpace? In May 2007, the site occupied the top spot for most visits and held three other spots in the top twenty.** //**Source:www.hitwise.com**//
Social Tagging, also known as folksonomy, is simple. Any content on the Internet can be tagged with descriptors (D’ Souza, 2007). For example, the BGSU Division of Teaching and Learning might be tagged with ‘university, Bowling Green, education, teachers, graduate, northwest Ohio.’ When these tags are listed on a site accessible to everyone, a user can filter through the tags and find relevant information. A potential graduate student looking for someplace to study, might combine the tags ‘teacher,’ ‘northwest Ohio,’ and ‘graduate’ and come up with Bowling Green State University. Www.CiteULike.com is an excellent example of a site that combines a social network with tagging. CiteULike is a free service that helps scholars share, store, and organize academic papers. Because citations are stored on the server, students can access it from any computer. They can share their library with others, and find out who is reading the same papers.

The second part of the professional development session will give teachers an opportunity for ‘exploration.’ Teachers will go to the computer lab and will be instructed to go to the session’s companion web site (see appendix A) which provides them with a starting point for their Web 2.0 journey. After exploring Web 2.0 sites, teachers will be asked to complete an assignment. They will be told that they have a week to identify a Web 2.0 tool they might use in their classroom. They will be required to comment about how they would use it on the session’s blog (see appendix C). The goal of this assignment is to foster an on-going discussion on Web 2.0. Finally, before they leave, they will complete the online survey (see appendix D).

It is my hope that this professional development session will expose teachers to Web 2.0 and will help them realize the promise of this emerging technology. Tom Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, described this promise in a podcast in 2006. When asked about his vision for the Internet he replied, “In general, I hope that we as humanity can learn to use this information space to understand each other, that we can form ourselves into groups in lots of interesting ways so that between us that sort of just tangled web of human groups spans the world so that... you aren't too many clicks across the social Web from any one person to any other one person, so that we start really pulling together in the world and solving the huge challenges which we've got without being distracted by fighting each other.” (Laningham, 2006).

**References**
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Brand, Glenn (1997). What research says:training teachers for using technology. Journal of Staff Development, 19, Retrieved May 17,2007, from http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/brand191.cfm

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D' Souza, Quentin (2007). Web 2.0 ideas for educators. Retrieved May 7, 2007, from http://www.teachinghacks.com/audio/100ideasWeb2educators.pdf

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