Learning Web 2.0 the Beginning

I am taking a course sponsored in my district on Web 2.0 tools. Though I feel comfortable dabbling in tech tools, I feel like a blind cat chasing it's tail. I know where the tail is, where it is going, but I'm geting dizzy chasing after it. While it is a part of me, I can't touch it, it keep one step ahead of me. Oh, I'm getting very dizzy but I can't help myself I've got to keep chasing it.

Finding one new tool leads to another gadget or widget, that opens the door to another new tool or blog, that connects me to at Tweet, or RSS feed which points me to a tech guru, who gets me thinking of new possible uses for these tools in class and online with students. No wonder cats sleep so much. All along the way I have anyone I have made personal contact with has been patient, kind and open. Thank you.

I am only three days into my initial probe ... do I smell tuna fish?

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Comment by Anthony Vestyck on August 13, 2009 at 4:44am: This makes a point of my concerns for future apps, products, etc. There is a difference, in my opinion, between the tech guru and educators. While the tech guru will gladly help you understand and inspire new uses for these tools they are continually looking to add to their bag of goodies. I am afraid this can ultimately mean there will be little stability in classrooms with this type of atmosphere.
If I were to add a new tool every three months there will be one or two tools I have to take out of my toolbox. Then there is the potential those older tools disappear. Teachers dependent on the older tool will have to find a replacement tool. I understand this is progress but my concern is with who is driving the education environment and how healthy will this continuous influx of apps/tools be in the long run. It may be fine for the guru but maybe not so much for the teacher and classroom.
It is like sitting at a SUSHI bar and you have all those choices but you can’t eat everything.
See you guys made me hungry for fish.

Comment by Artie O'Connor on August 13, 2009 at 7:02am: Well said, as an educator I have to carefully select the tools that will work with the population I have in my particular class at that particular time. I am fortunate that our instructor in a course I am taking is an active educator / Tech Integrator.
Stability in the classroom in my case, usually last for one term. Teaching in a block schedule I have a turnaround at the mid-year point. By that time I have new tools either by necessity as tools disappear, or out of personal boredom on my part.

Comment by Bridget Perry-Gore on August 14, 2009 at 5:41am: I know what you mean and I love your analogy with a cat chasing its tail. I thought that I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my middle school math groups this year. My original idea was to set up a central math blog and have a link to the class blogs. I also wanted them to make a summary of each unit in the form of a wiki (groups of 3-4). This would serve as a nice review tool at the end of the year and also get them used to creating their own space. Well, I have been reading ...and reading...and opening links..and I am now chasing my tail. It's exciting but I sometimes forget what the original goal was.

Comment by Artie O'Connor on August 14, 2009 at 9:19am: Right now I am stuggling to create a wikispace to list/link all of the tools I want to explore that I found this past week. The amazing thing I discovered is that many of the tools that are available appear to come without instructions/directions. The interaction I "hoped" 2.0 Tools would provide is missing in the teaching/presenting the tools themselves. As an educator I enjoy simple, easy to follow directions. This student is willing, if only the instructor would appear.

Comment by Bridget Perry-Gore on August 14, 2009 at 9:56am: I find it sometimes difficult to keep track of ideas as one leads to another etc. I tend to tag them on Delicious but I like your idea. What areas do you teach?

Comment by Artie O'Connor on August 14, 2009 at 11:05am: I curently teach Introduction to Environmental Studies, we ae going to cover Delicious later as well as Diigo. I will struggle later with Wikispaces - this idea came from seeing it being used by my current instructor.

Comment by Hassan Wilson on August 14, 2009 at 2:24pm: I have the exact same felling as you, Artie. This summer, I decided that I would figure out how to incorporate web 2.0 in my classes--of course I had yet to hear of the term "Web 2.0" at the time. I'm constantly learning new things, finding new programs, discovering new resources, reading new blogs, etc. It can be a bit overwhelming. I knew that I was beginning to get a grip on it when I started to: (excuse the following run-on) organize my rss subscriptions from blogs in folders on google reader while saving post-it notes on igoogle and transferring the finalized notes to my google site that I used as an enotebook, while tweeting about how I was finally getting a handle on it and posting this reply on ning...that was a mouthful! The only thing left is to create a wiki to share these new resources or blog about my experiences with web 2.0.

Comment by Artie O'Connor on August 15, 2009 at 6:30pm: Word.

Comment by Anthony Vestyck on August 17, 2009 at 6:24am: I get the stability in the classroom from EPEE which maintains your lessons in the order they are taught. If you need to change that order you can. If I need to change a file I just drag and drop the new on the old and it is replaced. My curriculum remains the way I leave it so next year there is a familiarity. The flexibility comes from the ability to drag and drop web links / short cuts into each lesson module as they pertain to that specific lesson. So in a second we can be interacting with anyone on the web regarding the same topic. Stability and flexibility that can not go away because EPEE is not web based.

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