Chapter+1+WES

=Chapter 1 - Watwood Elementary School=

**__Introduction__** **__A New World Wide Web__** **__Extraordinary Changes__** **__The Read/Write Web in Education__** **__Social Learning__** **__Learners as Teachers__** As we read about and consider these tools, the author asks us to reflect on the following: **__The Toolbox__** 1. Weblogs - According to Richardson, the most widely adopted tool of the Read/Write web to date is the weblog, or blog. Blogs are "easily created, easily updateable Websites that allow an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the the Internet from any Internet connection." Blogs can be interactive, allowing conversations to take place between teachers and students or allowing students to post information.
 * Development of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee
 * Created as a means to share data and personal talents and experiences through reading and writing
 * Internet mainly used by researchers and government officials prior to this point
 * Mosaic Web browser developed in 1993
 * Content limited, but millions began to read or "surf" the Web for information and entertainment
 * Essential communication and research network around the world by end of twentieth century
 * Rapid growth but limitations
 * Writing to the Web required knowledge of HTML codes
 * Limited collaboration
 * Understanding Instructional Technologies -Will Richardson "The Read/Write Web"
 * http://www.youtube.com/v/JFbDEBNS7AE&hl=en&fs=1
 * Wide variety of easy Internet publishing tools available today
 * 2003 - 44% of adult Internet users contribute to online content
 * 2005 - 57% of teen users considered "content creators"
 * 2008 - 110+ million blogs
 * Multimedia publishing exploding (2008)
 * video publishing sites [|www.YouTube.com]
 * photos [|www.snapfish.com]
 * audio files http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format
 * Used in politics, journalism, business, education
 * Becoming collaborators in the creation of large storehouses of information
 * **Education** slow to adapt to new tools and potentials
 * Used by **politicians** - "YouTube Campaign" and "MySpace"
 * **Journalism** and **Media** changing with amateur reporters and editors publishing digital photos, video, etc. and editing major stories through blogging
 * //USA Today, The Washington Post, BBC// and others creating interactive spaces for readers
 * **Businesses** using Weblogs and Wikis for public relations, customer service, internal communications
 * IBM running over 20,000 internal wiki sites, 26,000 blogs, 400,000 "Blue Pages" (IBM's MySpace)
 * GM, Coca-Cola, Sun Microsystems, Apple have blogs and wikis
 * Society of Authorship - every person with access has the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the Internet (the larger body of knowledge)
 * New technologies lead to transparent lives (always on and always connected)
 * [|www.twitter.com]
 * [|www.myspace.com]
 * Our students' realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are very different from our own.
 * They are building vast social networks with little or no guidance from adults.
 * Without question, our ability to easily publish content online and to connect to vast networks of passionate learners will force us to rethink the way we communicate with our constituents, the way we deliver our curriculum, and the expectations we have of our students.
 * Some may think that this does not correlate with standards and high stakes tests but they do have considerable relevance to state and local core content curriculum standards, and there is much reason to believe their implementation in schools will better prepare students for a slew of new literacies and competencies in their post-education lives.
 * Children now prefer to access information from the internet where information is more abundant, more accessible, and more up-to-date.
 * 60% of adolescents had a Myspace or a Facebook account
 * Early childhood students also network. Fastest growing group of internet users is 2- to 5-year-olds
 * Club Penquin - [|www.clubpenguin.com]
 * Webkinz - [|www.webkinz.com]
 * The computer creates children that can think differently from adults. They develop hypertext minds and leap around versus our sequential order way of thinking.
 * All of this paints a picture of an educational system that is out of touch with the way its students learn.
 * Be selfish and learn cool technology stuff first!
 * Give time to learn, construct, develop, sustain, and participate in global networks
 * As educators, we must tap into the potentials that these tools give us for learning.
 * What are your passions?
 * Who are your teachers? Are they all in physical space?
 * How are you building your own learning networks using these tools?
 * And, finally, in this new environment, how are you modeling your learning for your students?
 * Weblogs in Plain English by Common Craft - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=367ab9eed5af82966a48

2. Wikis - A wiki is a collaborative webspace that allows users to create and edit content that has been previously published. Teachers and students are using password-protected wikis for educational purposes.
 * Wikis in Plain English by Common Craft - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c04c7bfc822caf7c7459

3. Real Simple Syndication (RSS) - Real simple syndication is technology that allows educators to subscribe to website feeds from sites such as blogs, newspapers, magazines, etc. "Content comes to the reader instead of the reader retrieving the content."
 * RSS in Plain English by Common Craft - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=086faafd8c122981cc82

4. Aggregators - Aggregators are the tools that collect and organize content generated from sites with RSS readers.
 * [|Bloglines] ([|www.bloglines.com]), [|Google Reader] ([|www.google.com/reader]), [|Netvibes] ([|www.netvibes.com]), [|Pageflakes] ([|www.pageflakes.com])

5. Social Bookmarking - Sites that allow users to bookmark Web addresses of interest. Social bookmarking sites "allow readers to save and archive entire pages, thus producing a form of a searchable 'Internet.'"
 * Social Bookmarking in Plain English by Common Craft - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3e17aa176019eafac82a

6. Online Photo Galleries - Online photo galleries allow users to publish digital photos to the Internet for viewing by others.
 * Online Photo Sharing in Plain English - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=bcd2ff5b9e4a0578e021

7. Audio/video-casting - Producing digital voice and video files to publish and distribute on the Internet is made possible through audio/video-casting.
 * Podcasting in Plain English by Common Craft - http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0caf60d28b852556d52f

**Keeping Students Safe** Safety is about responsibility, appropriateness, and common sense. If we ask our students to publish on the Web we need to teach them what is acceptable and safe and what isn't. Interacting with the Web Issues to deal with when publishing Blogs can be a powerful and positive teaching tool. If however, there is unchecked access to commenting on a student site, it may open up the door for inappropriate feedback. Sample letter for blogging permission - http://tinyurl.com/636vh5
 * CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) requires schools and libraries to filter internet.
 * Teach students the skills they need to navigate the internet safely and effectively.
 * Protecting the privacy of personal information.
 * Most states require parental permission to publish student names, photos, or addresses.
 * Students should be taught to never reveal information about where they live, work, or anything else that would identify them to predators.
 * What if someone you don't know leaves a comment?
 * What if the comment is distasteful?