Summer Presentation Series on Social Media: Educator's Summer Conference June 23, 2008

I'll be doing a series of presentations over the summer -- all having to do with social media tools, upcoming trends and using social media tools in the classroom. My audiences will be a broad mix -- from K-12 educators, to small business owners -- all trying to wrap their hands around so-called Web 2.0 technologies. I've decided to use my blog as the starting point to include descriptions, links and my general outline for what I will cover. After each presentation I'll post my reflections and some of the Q&A that came from it.

Web 2.0 and What it Means for your Classroom
Summer Educators Conference Presentation
Champlain College, Monday, June 23, 2008

Course Description: Social media tools swirl around us and we hear that the younger generation is all over it, leaving teachers not just in the dust, but eons behind! However, what are they using really and how are they using it? And, more importantly, what tools are out there right now that you can leverage for your classroom? We'll explore the known such as social networks like Facebook and the general world of text and instant messaging. We'll also examine some things that may not be so well known including RSS, Blogging, Micro-blogging, Wikis and online collaboration tools. Most importantly we'll talk about ways to use these in your classrooms.

Required Readings:

1. Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0 by Trebor Scholz: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2138/1945
2. A Vision of Convergence in Higher Ed -- Please download and watch "Connected" and read the colleges vision for Mlearning http://www.acu.edu/technology/mobilelearning/index.html
3. In five years it's all about Mobile: http://ypulse.com/archives/2008/03/in_five_yearsit.php
4. Creating and Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking: http://www.nsba.org/SecondaryMenu/TLN/CreatingandConnecting.aspx

Required Videos:

1. RSS in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
2. Wikis in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
3. Social Bookmarking in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
4. Social Networking in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking
5. Blogging in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
6. Twitter in Plain English: http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

SESSION OUTLINE:

Introduction of me and this blog as a resource for information and what we cover.

Kick off with YouTube Video: Learning to Change - Changing to Learn and discussion

Tool Demonstration and how you could use them

• My Blog: http://champlainprofessor.blogspot.com/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=68900537
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ejyoung67
• IM: which might you use? AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk or an aggregator?
• RSS: iGoogle (http://www.google.com/) or Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/)
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ (my twitter is http://twitter.com/ejyoung67) think of this as a different way to use TXT in the classroom!

Hands on fun with one tool real time: Since we won't have time to do all of these, let's play with a newer tool to see what the possibilities are. Twitter. Everyone to sign up for a twitter account. Everyone "follow me" and then, post your overall reactions to this exercise (140 characters only please) using the following somewhere in your message #EdConf. Then we will go to http://www.twemes.com/edconf to read it all!

Closing with the possibilities brainstorm! Small groups on ways you might try these different tools in your classroom remembering that not all your students are using all of these tools! Each person to "TWEET" their results -- remember to use #edconf in the message.