making education fun

Making Education Fun Incorporating Web 2.0 into the Classroom

Vang Vang

Instruction/Outreach Librarian

CSU Fresno

What is fun?

All images from Google image

Fun in a Class is…

When students are Enjoying the activity/assignment

Sharing/interacting with each other and the instructor

Showing up to class and prepared

Web 2.0 … what is it?Web 2.0 … what is it?

How did we get it?

If you can’t view, copy the below address to any web browser’s url. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

How Do You Make/Create Fun?

Curiosity

Commitment

Creativity

Journaling

http://www.ourstory.com/

Collaborative Presentationhttp://voicethread.com/

Examples:http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/VoiceThread

Alternative Communication

http://www.skype.com/

Time Management

Time Saver

http://www.slideshare.net/

Links – further reading if interested

http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/25Tools/Tools/about.htmlFree! Teaching you (tutorial) about current web 2.0

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-learning_20_all_you_need_to_know.phpClassroom e-learning

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_gen_y_is_going_to_change_the_web.phpGen Y and their learning habits – who they are, what they do

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_backpack_web_apps_for_students.php20 excellent web 2.0 for students to use for FREE!

http://www.webware.com/html/ww/100/2008/winners.htmlTop 100 web 2.0 of 2008

http://web2magazine.blogspot.com/2007/01/thanks-for-web-2.htmlMore web. 2.0 applications/technologies for you to explore

RECAP:Remember:

Web 2.0 technologies should be easy to use and to learn. If it’s takes you more then 10 minutes to explore/learn and use the application, it might not be a good application to have your students use it.

Also almost all Web 2.0 should be free. You shouldn’t have to pay for anything (the basic) unless you want to upgrade and their fee should be strait forward on what you’ll be getting if you upgrade.

OurStory - Journal

Journaling is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to accelerate your personal development.

OurStory helps you recall, write about, and illustrate life’s most important memories. In one easy-to-use, organized place, and in a rich environment that celebrates all of the stories – big and small – with the words, photos and voices that help tell about your journey, at the same time honoring your choices regarding privacy.

Google Calendar - Time Management Tool

Google Calendar is a free web-based calendar service that enables people to keep track of all their important events, appointments and special occasions in one place, as well as share these details.

Put all your assignment due dates on the calendar and share it with all your students. When the assignment is going to be due in a day or two, you can send them notices/reminder.

Slideshare - Time Saver Tool

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations.

Anyone can find presentations on topics that interest them. They can tag, download, or embed presentations into their own blogs & websites. Presentations can either be viewed at the website itself or embedded in a blog or web page.

VoiceThread - Collaborative Presentation Tool

Voicethread allows users to upload a collection of images about any topic, and then to engage in an ongoing conversation about each image. Multiple comments---both audio and text---can be attached to every picture in a presentation, promoting digital dialogue in an interesting and engaging way.

It is a way of sharing photos but also a way of having people collaborate using the photos by adding comments to the photos. It is a sort of mix between slideshows and podcasting.

Skype - Communication ToolSkype lets you make free calls over the internet to anyone else who

also has the service. It's free and easy to download and use, and it works with most computers.

Here's the process: Download the software. www.skype.com Install the software. It automatically configures itself for your computer and network. Register as a Skype user. (Finding a unique name will be the tough part.) Get a headset for your computer. Using external speakers and a microphone is possible

but not practical. Locate another Skype user. Searching tools make this easy. Click on a Skype contact name. You can do this from a variety of places within the client

application. Talk free to people anywhere in the world via comp-to-comp

Use Skype as another method of communication for your students to each other or to you. We know that students learn differently – well they also communicate differently too. Chat, IM, email, phone and now skype.

Students do not have to give out their phone to each other (privacy issue); they can just skype each other.

Other web2.0 worth exploring…

Gradefix: http://www.gradefix.com/Best described by Gradefix, “Gradefix intelligently organizes and prioritizes all of your

homework so you are always on top of it.” Students that use Gradefix create a study schedule used to best spread out and prioritize homework throughout the week in hopes to decrease stress and improve grades.

mynoteIT: http://www.mynoteit.com/An online note taking tool for students including a WYSIWYG note editor, assignment

reminders, grade management, to do lists, and more. Students can also share notes with friends and receive feedback through commenting on notes.

Backpack: http://www.backpackit.com/Backpack is an all around great organizer including note taking, file storage, to do lists,

a calendar, and more. An example use could be that students can create pages in their organizer for each class and manage notes on class discussions as well as upload related files and class documents.

vangv@csufresno.edu - May 20, 2008