Re: [LM_NET] Tech Tools to try out

[Joyce Valenza <joycevalenza@GMAIL.COM>]

Hi Jacquie, and Gary, and all!
I am so glad you brought up the subject of Web 2.0!  I see greatchanges coming down 
the road this year and one of them is theread/write Web.  I interviewed 
EdTechTalk's (http://edtechtalk.com)Dave Cormier for an upcoming column and he 
offered what I found aparticularly clear explanation:
Web 2.0.  The term refers to what many people see as a second phase inWeb 
development, where the Web itself functions as a computingplatform. Cormier claims 
that 2005 was, the year of the read/write weband further explains the evolution. 
"With Web 1.0, the creator of thewebsite controls the content; with Web 2.0, the 
visitors control thecontent. Few websites now don't at least give you the chance to 
playwith their themes, if not create content."
Dave's Top Ten News Events of the Edublog Year are listed 
here:http://davecormier.com/edblog/?p=38 .
Several of these trends and extensions of them ought to be part of ourown scouting 
and visioning efforts.  We need to recognize the value ofOpen Source software (some 
of my favorites arehere--http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/opensource.html) as an equity 
solutionfor our schools and our individual students.
We need to figure out how to integrate the new connectivist tools. High school 
Facebook activities worry me a bit, but the new ElggLearning Landscape 
(http://elgg.net/) offers students a moreprotected, but cool, peer-inhabited 
blogging community. Similarly, itseems to me that while LiveJournal, Xanga, and 
Myspace are often alittle less than school-appropriate, we can help kids learn to 
blog(and write) thoughtfully, for real audiences using tools likeLearnerblogs.org 
and create virtual learning environments using Moodle(http://moodle.org ).
I think we need to look down the road at wikis for school projects. And we need to 
think about how wikibooks and wikitextbooks(http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page) 
 will integrate into theclassroom environment.   They can help us supplement 
already adoptedtexts, allowing teachers and students to share, customize, enhance 
andincrease the relevance of this often static content. (Of course,evaluation for 
both teachers and students will be part of this mix.)
Cormier also pointed out that this was the year of the browser-basedapplication, 
pointing to programs like Writelyhttp://www.writely.com/, the Web word processor 
and Odeohttp://odeo.com/ for recording and sharing audio. He predicts, 
"thedesktop-based application may soon become a thing of the specialistand the 
uncool. We may soon be looking back on 2005 and saying, 'Man,I was still using 
applications… what a pain (in the *#*)'"
jJoyce Kasman ValenzaSpringfield Township HS Library                    
techlife@schoolPhiladelphia InquirerPhone: 215-233-6030 Ext. 2502                   
  Fax: 215-836-5237Library website: http://mciu.org/~spjvweb     Personal 
website:http://joycevalenza.comDoctoral student UNT SLIS