Russell L. Kahn, PhD

Coordinator: BS in Communication and Information Design

Faculty: Masters Program in Information Design and Technology

This site is at: stemsocialnets.wetpaint.com

Web 2.0 Technologies and Education - August 3, 2010

I. SUNYIT programs that train in the use of these tools

1. Graduate Program in Information Design and Technology - Master of Sciences program on instructional design and use of new technologies in education (can be used toward permanent certification) idt.sunyit.edu
2. Undergraduate program in Communication and Information Design - Bachelor of Science program on use of new technologies to describe advances in math, science, and engineering: cid.sunyit.edu

II. Overview - Higher Level Learning Skills: From Technology & Learning

1. Remembering - Recognizing and retrieving (starting level)
   
2. Understanding - Summarizing
3. Applying - Using concepts
4. Analyzing and evaluating - Organizing, critiquing
5. Creating - Planning, designing, and producing (highest level)
   

III. Using Web 2.0 tools for higher level learning

1. Remembering and Retrieval tools: In a social network this involves finding experts and specialists who can answer specific questions. These search engines focus on Web 2.0 tools (such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) for up to the second information. Try nanotechnology as a search term. It's important to discuss credibility issues here. This should only be used as a starting point before going to more credible sources. But it's great for locating trends and for ideas.
   
1. Mashpedia – Real time encyclopedia – good place to start – gives developing definitions as well as recent videos from Youtube, slideshare and other social media sites. Try keyword Science Technology Engineering Math and choose first link to view recent videos on STEM issues.
   
2. Icerocket; choose Twitter; then try Big Buzz – most action draws content from lots of resources, Twitter, blogs, video
3. Collecta - Notice how front page changes as you watch – look at the list of options – nice layout and interesting format
   
4. Whos Talkin Wide variety of choices for searching
   
5. Silobreaker - Excellent news engine and collates data from a lot of social media resources. Try technology link near the center top of the page. Silobreaker provides a suite of analytical results and visualizations as part of every search result or article (on the right side). Nice visualization tool on right side (see network for nanotechnology).
   
6. OneRiot – Especially useful for following trends (right side of screen)
2. Understanding involves the ability to summarize, infer and paraphrase. Wordles and wikis can be used for restating and summarizing as well as reflective discussions.
1. Wordle explains concepts - use in place of a block of text.
   
1. Text description of Earth Science Picture of the Day
2. Website: Wordle description Earth Science Picture of the Day
3. Syllabus: Wordle description of Flash course
4. IDT mission statement: Wordle
5. Concept: What is Web 2.0? Cloud Map
3. Applying or using concepts or tools covered that week.
1. Using Prezi to apply Human Centered Design principles to an Earth Science website http://prezi.com/_q4jbfujm7oc/epod/
2. Open attached annotated storyofstuff website analysis - application of jing (go to bottom of page to open attachment)
   
4. Analyzing and Evaluating involve higher-level thinking skills of comparing, organizing, deconstructing, experimenting and critiquing.
1. Backtype – Nice way to Analyze websites references in social media. Check on audience (unique users) and engagement (tweets). Also lists top influencer (who’s behind each new social media tool) Try comparing huffingtonpost.com and nytimes.com - what would you predict? Run mouse along trend line to see values.
   
2. Try blog trend tool in Icerocket (on left site) and type in terms (such as ipad, ipod, iMac)
   
3. Short video Jings can be used to restate the components of a complex topic. Megan Bowe evaluates the TED.com website using Prezi and video Jings http://www.screencast.com/t/NTdkMzc1Mm
4. Express an opinion - evaluate a trend: Math is Not Linear
5. My prezi on this talk
   
5. Creating: Considered the highest level thinking skill, involves planning, designing, and producing.
1. Videocast of how to create a wiki
   
2. Flash production - Student portfolios
   
3. IDT student animations - See attachment
   
4. My podcast on the history of graphic design
   
5. Prezi creation
6. Wiki creation (this wiki)
1. Wetpaint (where this site is) free with ads
2. K-12 teachers can use PBwiki which is free to use and is ad free.

IV. Resources covered in this talk (all free of charge)

1. Jing annotation and short video tool - http://jingproject.com
2. Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color scheme: http://www.wordle.net/
3. Prezi non-linear presentation tool. Where a typical presentation is based on individual slides with a set progression, the starting point for a Prezi presentation is one big page. On this blank canvas, you place all of your elements for the entire presentation — images, text, even multimedia. NY Times article on Prezi.
4. Wikis such as wetpaint.com (this site) and PBwiki (free wiki creation site for K-12 educators). Wikis are easy-to-create websites created with pre-set templates. They can be worked on collaboratively. This wiki site at http://stemsocialnets.wetpaint.com/