Sitemap

 

Introduction:

The word "Generation Gap" has always been with us when we tried to understand the loud ramblings of our kids or the "stubbornness" of our parents. But today that GAP is being amplified in a technological world where we have to learn on the fly to stay up and get-with-the-programme in order to effectively teach the learners in our classes. They are the NET generation who stay up all night playing WOW, communicate via MXit and have a whole vocabulary that might as well be alien. (See http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm) So let's ALOTBSOL and GAT. (PS there will be a summative assessment on all of this at the end of this ;) - but then, when will this all end?)

What is WEB 2?

Web 1 referred to static web pages that provided information, supported by the use of e-mail as a means of communication. Web 2 refers to how the internet is used as a platform to create social networks and online communities, as well as online services and interactivity. This implies that users are not only passive consumers of information but active contributors of web content through the use of groups (communities) blogs, wiki's, podcasts, videocasts, social bookmarking, internet text messaging, feeds......... In a Web 1 environment only technically savvy individuals could author (create) content, but Web 2 has helped to make it easier for anybody to contribute and participate in creating content on the internet without having any web design or technical skills. Web 2 is therefore characterized by sharing, discussion and collaboration. New terminology that presents this phenomenon are Social Software, Social Media and Social Computing. The key word is 'Social'!

Reading: (with tool used to create the reading)

• Wikipedia discussion (Wiki)
• http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/ (Wiki for teaching and learning of Web 2.0 tools)
• Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0 (Blog)
• Web 2 Seminar (Slideshare)

Communities:

 

Communities bring people together. In communities we can share resources, support one another, network, stay informed, have fun and make real situated learning possible. This very community has been created for just such a purpose.  Online learning communities and communities of practice (CoP's) are the buzz words for some time now as Web 2 make collaborative learning a reality. In a school context we can use communities to keep parents informed of what is happening in the school, and make it possible for them to leave comments and discuss things, which will give them a more active sense of community with the school. Teachers can set up classroom communities..... We will create a page were we can debate the pos and cons of communities and look at some of the theory regarding online communities and CoP's. To explore communities, click here

 

Social networking (SN)

 

Social networking is a by-product of communities, or is it the other way around? When we talk about SN we refer to the relationships created by virtual communities as well as users tagging their favourite bookmarks online and sharing it using a tagging system, called folksonomy (taxonomy created by the people)

Reading:

• See Wikipedia.

• Social Book marking sites:

  • http://del.icio.us/

  • 

  • For a more complete list see "How stuff works"
     

Blogs

 

Wikipedia: A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. According to Technorati, the Blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months. The importance of blogs in education has been widely blogged about.

How can schools use Blogs for education? Go to the Blog creation page

Podcasts | Vodcasts(Go to podcast page)

Podcasting refers to the method of distributing audio files over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. With video casts or vodcasts, you can upload video's to social networking sites like YouTube and become a vlogger

• See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasts
• Go to podcasting page 
    
   

RSS Feeds (Go to Rss page)

 

Really simple syndication makes it possible to view updated content from chosen websites. You can use RSS aggregators (programmes) to deliver the feeds right to your PC. Newer browsers (Download Internet Explorer 7)  facilitate feed harvesting and group your feeds neatly with your favourites. If the Feed icon is orange, you can subscribe to the feed. Feeds are an easy way to keep track of changes on a website as your feeds gets automatically updated and downloaded to your PC, every time a site is updated. A feed is a specially formatted web page that is read by an application called a feed reader or aggregator. This application lists a summary of each change or new page, sorted by date. Sometimes you'll see feeds called syndication, XML, or RSS - they're all the same thing. Click here to learn more about feeds and set one up

 

Wiki's(Go to wiki page)

 

See wikipedia. A Wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.

• wikiHow - The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or EditWiki search engine

• http://www.wikispaces.com
  Wikispaces provides feeds of page edits and messages for all of their spaces. You may also use feeds for specific pages and discussion areas. Very handy.

Internet Text Messaging(Go to IM page)

 

Internet messaging is a way to collaborate (talk to one another) online, using text, in real time with other people using the internet. To read more about instant messaging at Wikipedia, click here. We will use IM to have online virtual real-time meetings. There are various clients (programmes) available for free download which will make this possible. To learn more about this and set up your Internet Message chat, click here

 

Skype and Skypecasts (Go to the skypecast page)

 

VoiP is the next battleground of the telecoms as it makes it possible for people to talk to one another (as in hearing them) using your computer. Skype is a little piece of software that you can download for free that lets you talk over the Internet to anyone, anywhere in the world for free (apart from your internet connection costs). You can also call ordinary phones and cell phones for a fraction of the cost of a normal call. It also acts as a text messenger and you can have conference calls (up to 10 people) and share files while you chat. Skypecasts is like having an online conference with up to a 100 people. You set it up and people join to be part of the conference. The Host can control who talks (cool- must use it on my family) and the guests can text chat to each other while they listen to everybody else talking. To learn more about Skype and Skypecasting and to set yourself up, ready for a virtual tea party, click here

 

 

Web 2.0 makes it possible to use online platforms instead of software programmes installed on your computer to create word documents, spreadsheets, calendars, contacts, WebPages and more. One such an example is Google applications. Google Apps brings together essential services to help your business, school, group or family communicate and collaborate more effectively. These services are powerful, easy to set up, require no maintenance, and you can get them for free. You can set up Mail, Mail for mobile, Talk, Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Personalized Homepage, and Page Creator on your domain. Administrative features include domain management, extensibility APIs for Google Apps Premier and Education Editions, and partner services. For more information, click here

 

Cellphones and Web 2.0 (Go to mobile learning page)

 

In the Web 2.0 environment the boundaries between the internet and cellphones have become blurred. Nowadays you can move seamlessly between the two. You can surf the internet using your wap enabled cellphone, you can upload files, check your e-mail and do just about anything you can  do on your computer. For this reason I would like to include cellphones as a web 2.0 tool. Our local Mxit web 2.0 effort has made it possible to chat using our cellphones for a fraction of the cost of a normal sms. M-learning has joined e-learning in the teaching and learning arena. To explore M-learn, click here