Connect 2.0

Last week we had another successful Parent Coffee Morning – this time we covered some of the basics of web 2.0: blogging, wikis, RSS, social bookmarking and social networking.

We started out by watching and discussing some great, quick videos, by Common Craft:

Blogs in Plain English

We have quite a few student and teacher blogs here at school. We use our blogs to connect with a wider, authentic audience. The power of having a wider audience for our writing is both exciting and motivating for students and teachers! You can find all of the ES blogs linked on the sidebar to the right. Please feel free to check them out and leave some comments!

Wikis in Plain English

We are using wikis in several classes here at school. You might want to visit a few to get an idea of how they are used. One of the most recent projects has been the 1001 FlatWorld Tales project completed by Mrs. M’s fourth grade class. Check out their persuasive stories here!

Social Networking in Plain English

We are using social networking in grade 5, grade 4 and grade 2 to connect our students with others around the world to discuss our learning. Our grade 5 Ning is focused on engaging highly able readers through discussion about books, themes and characters. Our grade 4 Ning is focused on delving deeper into our science curriculum by presenting, sharing and discussing big issues about water. Our grade 2 Ning connects our class with a partner grade 2 class in the US to learn more about intercultural understanding. All of our Nings are password protected and private – meaning only students, teachers and parents involved in the project can see the work the students are doing.

As an extra bonus, we watched two more videos that cover some other web 2.0 tools that our students are not using yet (but they will be soon!):

RSS in Plain English

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Now that we’ve covered the basics of web 2.0, the homework assignment for this session is to leave a comment here, on this blog post! You can leave a comment about something interesting you learned during the session, or a further question, or an idea for the topic of our next session, or anything else you’re interested in! We look forward to continuing our discussion here!

Our next session will be: Wednesday, April 23rd at 7:30 in the Project Zone of the Learning Hub. Please join us!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under 21st Century Literacy, The Parent Connection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.