Ideas needed for High School Web 2.0 Apps Class

I'm thinking about creating a Web 2.0 Apps class as a semester long elective for high school students. I'm wondering if anyone is already doing this and would be willing to share materials/ideas.

I'm also interested in getting ideas for how to structure the class (it runs about 17 weeks). I'm thinking of starting with blogging and having students blog their reflections about each tool they learn. I'm also thinking about having them create screencasts to teach others how to use each tool. I'm a little stuck on a final assessment. One idea would be to have them invent their own ideal Web 2.0 app (as a concept - not the programming part).

Please share your materials, experiences and ideas. Even if you have never done it.

Tags: assessment, curriculum, lessonplans, web2.0

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on August 24, 2008 at 7:46am

Anne,
This looks awesome. You are no where near too late. I also am going to be working with a very small class (only 2 kids right now) at a small private school outside of Boston. I am new in this position and am changing an existing course. Hopefully, next semester my enrollment will increase.

I would love to join your class - What is your school schedule? We are just finishing Summer and starting a new year at the beginning of September. This course will run from September through January. Will that work for you?

I really like your essential questions. Although, I don't want to get too much into networking applications - at least not at first. This course and I are both brand new to the school. I think just having the kids blog will be pushing the limits a bit.

I will send you an email to join your ning. Do you have a syllabus for your course that you could share with me?
-Liz

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Permalink Reply by Anne Baird on August 24, 2008 at 5:47pm

Hi Liz
I got your email and have sent an invitation. I will forward the syllabus to you shortly. It's still being fleshed out and this is partly because it is a new unit of work and partly because I sort of want the kids to drive it. But I can certainly send you the outline of ideas and that will give you a sense of where I'm trying to head with it.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on August 24, 2008 at 7:50am

Maybe another question is - How do our lives influence the Internet?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Baird on August 25, 2008 at 4:58am

Hmm great thought. I hadn't thought of it from the other point of view. Of course with Web2 we influence the web very much. Thanks for that Liz I will rethink one of my questions.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on August 25, 2008 at 6:40am

Thanks for these suggestions. I think it is a great idea to connect the course to current events, especially while we are getting in to blogging. I have them subscribe to some political news and bloggers. Maybe they could compare the coverage.

In first quarter I'm not going to get too technical. In the second quarter I am thinking that I will have them research a topic of their choice and let them get more technical at that point - open source software, net neutrality, MUVEs, Visual Programming languages (Alice and Scratch). I am much less expert in these areas, so I think I could learn a lot from them and they could learn from each other on these topics.

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Permalink Reply by Ann E Darling on August 24, 2008 at 8:35pm

Hi Liz,
I am teaching multimedia 1 for the second time and second semester I will be frantically coming up with mm2. We will have done some photo essays and digital stories using web 2.0 tools in mm1 and I have them scheduled to assist 4th graders in a project at our school. One of my other goals for a final assessment is to have students find a "client" among the faculty here that they could build a web 2.0 presentation for (a Timetoast, VoiceThread or video tutorial). Not only do my students get a taste of how to collaborate in a client/designer type relationship our faculty will get a push (desperately needed) into the web 2.0 world.

I have Moodled the multimedia I class that covers photography, photoshop, and video. When I have the web 2.0 units built I will share/post

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on August 24, 2008 at 9:06pm

Thanks that would be great. I love the idea of having the kids work with faculty. I hope to be able to incorporate something like that, but I have to first see if faculty will be open to it. I'm going in to a new school, so there are a lot of unknowns. Please do share your stuff when you can.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Stein on August 24, 2008 at 9:20pm

Elizabeth,

For online collaboration, you should really take a look at Studeous (www.studeous.com). I have been working on this project for the past year, and it has really taken off. We have taken the best of the web 2.0 tools, brought them all to one place, and made them very easy to use. We even have our own blogging platform that makes it super easy to blog. Your students can even attach their blogs to your class page so that they're all in one place. Plus, it's completely free and hosted for teachers and students. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Jefferson

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on August 24, 2008 at 9:23pm

Jefferson,
It looks very interesting. Can you get me a registration code so I can sign up and look into it further?
-Liz

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Permalink Reply by Ellen Pham on August 25, 2008 at 9:12am

Hi Elizabeth- it looks like you send them your email address and they send you a registration code- link

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Permalink Reply by ann s michaelsen on August 25, 2008 at 7:55am

I would love to collaborate with a teacher/class in the US. I'm situated in Norway and my class of third year English students all have their own lap-tops. Of course it is difficult with the time difference, I mean with skype, but still there must be other ways to do this?