For the Web 2.0 assignment I checked out several of the things mentioned. I spent some time on wefeelfine, which I personally found fascinating and to be hon est was somewhat in awe of how the web has evolved from a predominantly one-way information highway. At first I thought there would be no educational use for wefeelfine, then it occurred to me that this year I am teaching psychology and this could put to good use in that class. Having students do research on specific emotions, and even applying different theories to the different states of mind found on there. These are not just different ways of looking at the same old thing, but a way to inject real live situations and emotions into previously made up situations. I also checked out 43things, which I could only see use as a new way of collecting data for charts and graphs, mean, median, mode in my math class. The three things I started for the project were:- I opened a flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/24114245@N05/. I
uploaded some photos, but as far as education goes, I think that this is better for the sharing of the school experience than any curricular use. - I uploaded a video to YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9jiLGc6vc. There is an educator version of this called "TeacherTube" that I have already used to find good educational video clips for my classroom. The video I uploaded has no educational value, but I have found a couple good clips for my psychology class.
- I started a MySpace place, http://www.myspace.com/srossinet, which I really cannot see any educational use for, especially since MySpace and sites like that are blocked in the Granite School District. The only thing I can see this useful for is for the stuff I use my district blog for - and I think the blog does it a lot better. Once I get the students used to using it (after the district makes it available to all teachers) I see it as a place where students post questions about the assignments, where either I or another student can help them with their problem. Right now, my blog (http://graniteblog.graniteschools.org/steve/) only has a list of the assignments on it.
We've been talking about Web 2.0 a lot in my technology meetings at the district (I'm the School Technology Specialist at my school) and it wasn't until our class discussion around wefeelfine.org that I really understood the evolution the web has made, and it's significance. The web is no longer just informing us, growing outward and leaving the inner parts alone. We are now changing the web, fluctuating it, molding it and making it fit our needs. There were some things we looked at that I cannot see a use for in my classroom, but I can also see that there are ways for any of them to be adapted to some classroom, it just takes a teacher willing to see how they can benefit from it.
