The Student Perspective on Web2.0

Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences

Joseph TameJamie Wood

CILASS: a CETL• 5 year programme

• £4.5M, initially funded by HEFCE + £350K additional capital funding

• Impacting on 10,000 students

• Arts, Social Sciences and Law as ‘core’ community

• Extending to other disciplines

• Over 100 projects

• Impacting nationally and internationally

The CILASS Student Ambassador Network

Work of the SAN

Student Ambassador

Network

Evaluation Group

Journal GroupFilm Group

Information Materials

Group

Technology/ User Support

Group

Staff-student Symposium

Working with departments on

planning and evaluation

Film on student views of IBL for the History

department

Creation of Student-centred

Materials/Guides

CILASS Student Journal

The new CILASS for Students website. Created for students, by students.http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/students

The CILASS SAN You Tube Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/thecilasssan

The award-winning CILASS Student Blog. http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/students/blog

The CILASS Student Journal. http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/students/journal

CILASS @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/cilass

The CILASS Student Journal. http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/students/journal

SEAS の IBL プロジェクト

(The School of East Asian Studies’ IBL

Project)

How does one bring Japan into the classroom?

A video created for the Japanese Virtual Language Lab to stimulate thinking on donor cards

An example of a website used for in-class research for use in live debates

You Tube videos are also used to back up arguments in in-class debates

In small group presentations on global warming, audience members are invited to find out what their carbon footprint is?

Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning on their own Japanese blogs

Uses of Technology

• Setting the scene and stimulating Debate

• “Live” research = heated discussions!

• Enhancing presentations

• Reflection

Why IBL?• Active and deep engagement

• Experiencing the real world and understanding how knowledge is created

• Social participation, employment, lifelong learning

• Strengthening the research-teaching nexus

• A strategic focus for University of Sheffield

“Modelling the process of research in the student learning experience”

IBL and Web2.0: examples

• The TILL Soup Blog

• theatre two point oh#

http://www.foundationblog.group.shef.ac.uk/blog/http://theatretwopointoh.blogspot.com/

Tagging for Inquiry• del.icio.us site set up •each week students were asked to select 3 websites to be added to the list

• I did the same

• we created a user-generated resource listhttp://del.icio.us/PagansChristiansHeretics

Blogging for inquiry

• students to post a weekly question arising from their preparatory readings

• As tutor, I read the blog and del.icio.us site each week and used them as a basis for preparing the coming seminarhttp://paganschristiansheretics.wordpress.com/

Reflections: Positive outcomes• It’s easy• Most of the students have engaged with it, some consistently

• Allowed me to make seminars relevant to the work that the students had done

• Really interesting to be able to chart what the students are doing/ what they think of the websites

• The students seemed to like it

Reflections: Challenges

• Some students haven’t engaged with it, or have only engaged with it in passing

• Tension between direction/ modifying student use of the internet

• Is this inquiry? • Repetitive? • Will they do it without being chased?

Student Feedback – del.icio.us

• The Del.ic.ous. website was really useful, although sometimes it takes a little looking around to find really useful sources.

• It wasn’t so useful for me. I prefer consulting the reading list in the course handbook to find reading for seminars & essays.

• The delicious site was useful as a compilation of resources and to generate discussion about the use of primary materials.

• It was helpful as it made sure I did some meaningful reading, and I was able to refer to it when I wrote my essay.

• If I'm honest I didn't look at anyone else's entriesgenerally as I found useful sites on my own that I used.

• Some weeks I found myself searching for a question rather than burning to ask one and other weeks I did put up genuine questions that I thought would be helpful for everyone.

• It was worthwhile and got you thinking about the topic before the seminar which helped you to come to class with clarified thoughts.

• The blog was useful as it meant that one could direct one's thinking during reading by seeing what other people had asked, and if you came up with questions yourself it confirmed that you had understood and engaged with the material/topic. The blog also provided a good framework for seminar work.

Student Feedback – blogging

Feedback from SAN•Q. What web 2.0 tools do you use regularly (e.g. Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, Facebook,

Flickr, Blogs, Wikis, Twitter, YouTube)?  

•A. “I don’t know what Web 2.0 is, but I use Facebook and Wikipedia regularly”

• - Active or passive users of these sites?

Feedback from SAN•Q. How do you feel about the use of Web 2.0 tools in teaching? Do you think that Facebook should be used? 

•I think that using web 2.0 tools is a great idea - but I don't think that Facebook itself would be suitable, due to the fact that there is so much personal information, photos and videos on there.

•We have used Web 2.0 tools extensively in our modules this year, through MOLE. This has allowed us to share opinions as well as files and links to useful sites. This is completely separate space from our personal space.

Feedback from SAN•Q. Are you aware that by signing up with Facebook / Blogger / Flickr you are giving these companies permission to use anything you post for their own purposes? Are you aware that employers are now known to check Facebook accounts when selecting potential employees?

•A. Yes, thanks to some news stories this year I am aware of the risks and that’s why my profile is only available to my networks.

•- ID Theft through applications / phishing? - Sites other than Facebook (e.g. Friend’s Reunited)

Learn more about CILASS projects @...

www.shef.ac.uk/cilass

www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/students

www.slideshare.net/cilass.slideshare

email: cilass@shef.ac.uk